Confusion prevailed over the result of the India-South Africa Women’s Cricket World Cup warm-up game on Sunday, with players, ICC, Cricket South Africa and Google posting different scorecards.

The preparations for the Women’s Cricket World Cup, which begins on March 4 in New Zealand, began with participants taking part in the first round of warm-up matches on Sunday. However, supporters were forced to seek out live updates from a variety of sources with the games not being telecast or live streamed. The ICC also wrongly mentioned the start time of the matches on their website, including the game between South Africa and India, which was initially scheduled to begin at 9am local time or 1.30am IST. However, the encounter eventually began at 11am local time, or 3.30am IST.

Hi there team, none of the matches start at 09:00 local time despite what the website says. They’re either a 10:30am or 11:00am start local time depending on the ground 😀

— Kristy Havill (@HavillKristy) February 26, 2022

Batting first, India posted 244, led by a century from Harmanpreet Kaur. The target seemed to be inadequate after ICC’s live update showed that South Africa had chased down the target with four wickets in hand. They even published a match report, claiming South Africa had won by four wickets, on their website. The official Twitter handle of Cricket South Africa too congratulated the team on the fine win, with a post that read, “Captain Sune Luus (87) and Laura Wolvaardt (85) anchored the #MomentumProteas chase as they claimed victory over India Women in their #CW22 warm-up match.”

Both posts were later deleted.

ICC published a report saying India lost the match and tweeted it too. @cricketworldcup could you please get it together and be better! This is not what the women athletes deserve and these horrendous confusions does not garner fans either! https://t.co/Igy5Mf9fhz pic.twitter.com/tSLRTFC33d

— Sa. Gomesh | ச. கோமேஷ் (@theumpires_call) February 27, 2022

What led to the confusion was that ICC’s manual scoresheet at the venue had India as the winners, triumphing by two runs.

Live ball by ball of ICC said South Africa won, then the score was updated, but now, per the scoresheet, it says INDIA WON BY 2 RUNS! WHY DO WE EVEN! 😭 pic.twitter.com/Q3QOX0YUk6

— Sa. Gomesh | ச. கோமேஷ் (@theumpires_call) February 27, 2022

Various platforms provided different results: some suggested Harmanpreet’s final score was 114, with others stating she ended with 103 runs to her name. What made the proceedings even more bizarre was that the ICC’s live update had Sneh Rana’s score as 3 off 23 deliveries with -2 fours after the conclusion of the game. Google’s real-time updates, at one point, had South Africa on 242-7 in 52.2 overs, needing another 3 runs to win from -14 deliveries.

-2 fours. pic.twitter.com/3e7794ua61

— Sarah Waris (@swaris16) February 27, 2022

Now google says SA have batted 52.2 overs, needs 3 runs from -14 deliveries. Never seen this in my life. Nice.#CricketTwitter #CWC22 pic.twitter.com/39HEBaOedQ

— Krithika (@krithika0808) February 27, 2022

The confusion led to fans asking the players who took part in the game about the correct result, with two India cricketers, Yastika Bhatia and Rana, taking to Twitter to clear the air about the correct scorecard. However, both provided a different scorecard, and matters were complicated even further.

It has come to this, eventually. A player, after scoring a half century and spending three hours in the field, comes out and have to confirm the results. pic.twitter.com/ADAtqtTcB4

— Sa. Gomesh | ச. கோமேஷ் (@theumpires_call) February 27, 2022

🤟🏻 pic.twitter.com/cr9wnuiHXy

— Sneh Rana (@SnehRana15) February 27, 2022

This was not the only warm-up match that had an incorrect scorecard for most parts, with the game between Australia and West Indies seeing similar confusion.

Equally shambolic with the Aus v WI game. No consensus in scorecards between the venue and the Aussie analyst, and still nothing on the ICC scorecard either way.

— Laura Jolly (@JollyLauz18) February 27, 2022

India were eventually named the winners of the warm-up game, with the ICC later updating the correct scorecard on their website.